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The Comet With a Broken Heart
On the night of April 23 to 24, ESO's Very Large Telescope observed fragment B of the comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 that had split a few days earlier. To their great surprise, the ESO astronomers discovered that the piece just ejected by fragment B was splitting again! Five other mini-comets are also visible on the image. The comet seems thus doomed to disintegrate but the question remains in how much time. Comet P73/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW 3) is a body with a very tormented past. This comet revolves around the Sun in about 5.4 years, in a very elongated orbit that brings it from inwards of the Earth's orbit to the neighbourhood of giant planet Jupiter. In 1995, when it was coming 'close' to the Earth, it underwent a dramatic and completely unexpected, thousand-fold brightening. Observations in 1996, with ESO's New Technology Telescope and 3.6-m telescope, at La Silla, showed that this was due to the fact that the comet had split into three distinct pieces. Later, in December 1996, two more fragments were discovered. At the last comeback, in 2001, of these five fragments only three were still seen, the fragments C (the largest one), B and E. No new fragmentations happened during this approach, apparently. Things were different this time, when the comet moved again towards its closest approach to the Sun - and to the Earth. Early in March, seven fragments were observed, the brightest (fragment C) being of magnitude 12, i.e. 250 fainter than what the unaided can see, while fragment B was 10 times fainter still. In the course of March, 6 new fragments were seen......... Posted by: Brooke Permalink Source Truck Stop Electrification Station Maps Help Truckers Reduce Idling
Idle reduction systems hold great promise for the approximately 500,000 long-haul trucks with sleeper cabs currently operating in the United States. Estimates show idle reduction technologies could reduce diesel fuel use by about 800 million gallons annually, with a potential savings to the trucking industry of $2 billion each year. In addition, idle reduction strategies can reduce NOX emissions by approximately 150,000 tonnes per year and particulate matter emissions by up to 3,000 tonnes per year. By reducing the amount of time that trucks idle, typically 6 hours per night, drivers can significantly reduce engine wear and associated maintenance costs. Routine maintenance can be performed less often and trucks can travel farther before needing an engine overhaul. The Truck Stop Electrification Station Locator (TSE) was developed through an interagency agreement by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The project resulted from a collaboration between FHWA and the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities activity......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Harvesting Daylight And Saving Energy
The DaySwitch consists of a photosensor (bottom) that measures daylight levels and sends a signal to the microcontroller (top) that switches the luminaire on and off. Photo by Rensselaer/LRC
"The DaySwitch is designed to build end-use efficiency by reducing light energy usage in commercial buildings and maintaining occupant satisfaction," said Peter Morante, director of energy programs at the LRC. "It is estimated that the DaySwitch will be able to reduce lighting energy consumption by 30 percent in buildings with significant daylight contribution through windows or skylights, allowing for a payback period of approximately three years". Typical dimming systems have several drawbacks, including high initial cost and difficult photosensor programming and installation. As a result, dimming systems have not permeated the market, as per Morante. The DaySwitch development team, led by Morante and Richard Pysar, an electronic design engineer at the LRC, created a low-cost prototype to control individual light fixtures, unlike traditional systems where one sensor controls numerous lamps. Individual control provides flexibility for on/off control and simple installation......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source New materials for high efficiency organic solid state lighting
An organic light-emitting device (OLED) structure shows the emission layer which incorporates new charge-transporting organic phosphine oxide molecules (top right) as high triplet energy hosts for blue organometallic phosphors (blue dots).
In an OLED, light emitting molecules harvest positive and negative charge carriers from oppositely charged electrodes to create excitons, which collapse to give light emission. By using organometallic phosphors, a photon can be emitted for every electron used so there is no wasted current. But until now, no good host materials were available to transport the charge to blue phosphorescent light emitters. And, without an efficient blue component, it is not possible to generate the high quality white light mandatory for indoor lighting. The PNNL team is solving this problem by linking small organic molecules together using inorganic "phosphine oxide" connecting units to make larger molecules that transport charge but do not interfere with the blue light emission process......... Posted by: Sarah Permalink Source Nanoporous 'sponge' Removes Mercury From Offshore
Thiol-SAMMS material can remove nearly all of the mercury found in produced waters created when drilling offshore.
Scientists at PNNL have developed a novel nanoporous sorbent thiol-SAMMS, or thiol-functionalized Self Assembled Monolayers on Mesoporous Supports, to specifically remove mercury and other contaminants such as cadmium and lead from produced waters and condensate liquids from natural gas. Working with a filtration equipment company in Texas, PNNL recently demonstrated that thiol-SAMMS was effective in removing more than 99 percent of mercury from gas condensate liquids containing approximately 800 ppb mercury. The thiol-SAMMS technology is a recipient of a R&D 100 award and recently received the 2006 Federal Laboratory Consortium award for successful technology transfer for commercial use. Steward Advanced Materials in Chattanooga, Tenn., is now licensed to commercially produce thiol-SAMMS......... Posted by: Sarah Permalink Source Series Explores Ships Lost At Sea
Sidescan sonar image of ship wreck in lower Patuxent River. It is believed that the stern is missing at the top of the image and the bow is toward the bottom.
David Bright, Penn State alumnus and president of Nautical Research Group, Inc. of New Jersey, will present a multifaceted view of the Andrea Doria from her initial planning and construction to salvage dives in the 260 feet of cold North Atlantic waters. The Andrea Doria was an Italian steamship with 1705 passengers and crew on board that was struck in fog off the coast of Rhode Island by the Swedish-American liner Stockholm. The ship was traveling from Genoa, Italy to New York City in 1956. The 29,000-ton liner sank in 11 hours. Bright is an experienced shipwreck historian and deep technical diver. He studied the Titanic for more than 30 years and in 2003 and 2005, as part of scientific research, dove 3 miles to the wreck site of the ship on the Atlantic floor. He has studied the degradation of the ship caused by increased microbial activity. He has also worked on the wreck of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. He is considered the foremost historical authority on the Andrea Doria......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Studying Ivory-billed Woodpecker
In February 2000, Michael Collins, a Naval Research Laboratory scientist and bird watcher, heard the unmistakable calls of an ivorybill at NRL's Stennis Space Center site, located next to the Pearl River Basin, which runs north of Interstate 10 along the Mississippi-Louisiana border. After hearing the news of the discovery in Arkansas, Collins was inspired to conduct a serious search in the Pearl. Collins has located ivorybills in an area where there had been a history of unconfirmed sightings. A sighting by David Kulivan, a Louisiana State University (LSU) graduate student, in 1999 generated a renewed interest in searching for the ivorybill. Researchers from LSU and Cornell University and a number of bird watchers visited the area in the following years, but they were unable to confirm the sightings or obtain data......... Posted by: Ashley Permalink Source Next Generation Fuel Cells
A relatively new instrument at NRC-ICPET is a Bruker-AXS D8 Discover GADDS system, an X-ray diffraction instrument that can perform very fast analyses on polymer and other materials. Dr. Whitfield also uses this instrument for micro-diffraction, using very small samples.
NRC Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technology (NRC-ICPET) researchers, Drs. Pamela Whitfield, Gisele Amow and Isobel Davidson, teamed up with Dr. Stephen Skinner (Department of Materials, Imperial College, U.K.) to collaborate on a project that tackled these challenges. The research was funded by the NRC-British Council Joint S&T Fund and involved comparing methods to synthesize novel cathode materials using a conventional Pechini process and a non-conventional production method - microwave-assisted synthesis. The novel cathode materials produced by both methods were then evaluated for their potential use in intermediate temperature SOFCs. The two teams worked together on developing new cathode compositions in a family of oxides known to be hyperstoichiometric in oxygen. In this class of materials the ionic transport of oxygen is augmented by interstitial oxide ions within the structure's crystal lattice. Led by Dr. Skinner, the British team provided expertise on measuring oxide ion mobility using a technique of isotopic exchange and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The research led to new cathode compositions with greater ionic conductivity, thereby decreasing the amount of energy necessary for oxygen ion mobility and enabling the fuel cell to operate at lower temperatures. Lower operating temperatures can increase the durability of SOFCs and makes smaller-scale applications, such as portable power units, more feasible......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Innovation on the Rock, An Ocean of Opportunity
At the centre of the ocean technology cluster sit two senior scientists at the NRC Institute for Ocean Technology (NRC-IOT). Antonio Simões Re and Bruce Colbourne were recently awarded NRC Outstanding Achievement Awards for the work they've done to build Newfoundland & Labrador's ocean technology cluster as solid as "the Rock" itself. Tides of Change The province has always had a historical and cultural attachment to the sea, and the strength of its economy has traditionally rested in the region's unpredictable waters. The past several years have been a time of mapping this relationship into an economic growth strategy to fuel innovation, job creation and make the region more competitive. Central to this strategy has been OceansAdvance, a private-public partnership to build Newfoundland & Labrador's R&D capacities, expand business and export opportunities and identify investment prospects. NRC Outstanding Achievement Award recipient Bruce Colbourne was a driving force behind the development of this initiative and continues to remain a strong, visionary member of the group......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Automated System Predicts Grape Yields
There, ARS horticulturist Julie Tarara and his colleagues have developed an automated system for estimating grape yields based on tension changes in the trellis wire used to support the vine crop. Her team is still field-testing the system. The hope is that the yield estimates it produces will allow growers and processors to better synchronize their pruning, watering, picking and juice-making operations. As per Tarara, who works in ARS' Horticultural Crops Research Unit at Prosser, the current method of estimating grape yields involves counting berry clusters on sample vines, followed by counting and weighing of individual berries. The averages are then compared to records from past seasons to predict the current crop's likely yield. Imprecise estimates can sometimes be costly. For example, an inflated yield estimate might lead a winery to order more barrels than it actually needs. The "pain" is in the price tag: New American oak barrels start at around $300, while new French oak barrels cost from $600 to around $800 each. The scientists' automated system employs a device called a load cell to detect increases in the tension of trellis wire as grape clusters form and berries enlarge. A data logger records signals generated by the tension changes every 10 seconds, formulating an average every 15 minutes. Now, Tarara's team must download, inspect and "clean" data logger information for processing and eventual use in predicting grape yield. Once validated with field tests, though, the process will be completely automated, providing users with real-time information on their crop's progress, as per Tarara......... Posted by: Jessica Permalink Source |
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